Detailed proposals for Heaton & Ouseburn

The proposals for Heaton are split into three areas: Heaton Park to the City Stadium, Heaton Road, and Chillingham Road.

The view the plans you are interested in, please click on the links below, or keep scrolling down the page to see them all. You can find out more about how many cars use the roads in Heaton (referred to traffic counts) by looking at the Resources page, or by seeing them on the dedicated Heaton Traffic Stats page (external link).

Heaton Park to City Stadium

Warwick Street and Newington Road Junction

At present this junction is an obstacle between residents of Sandyford and the City Stadium Park and Hotspur Primary School. Additionally, people walking from Heaton towards town have to stop twice to cross Newington Road. With over 200 vehicles passing every 15 minutes at peak times[1] the junction provides a poor gateway to the area for people travelling by foot or bike.

The exit from the park on to Warwick Street is unsightly and an inefficient use of space.

Lots of pedestrians and cyclists want to get from city stadium over Warwick Street, and at present it is difficult to do this. The plans remove some of the blockages on the pavement at the bottom of Warwick Street which make this much easier. They also include a larger pavement on the corner where the new Star and Shadow cinema is. This could be a very pleasant area, with trees, and provides more space for pedestrians.

Updating the pavement and access to Newington Road alongside the park will help separate people trying to cross Warwick Street by bike and on foot and allow what is now an unsightly blockage to be visually improved at the same time.

The proposed changes will result in the removal of the left turn lane from eastbound Warwick St on to Newington Road, but not the ability to turn left. This will sometimes add a couple of minutes to some journeys by car. However, this has to be offset against the benefits of being able to use that space for a larger pavement, with trees. This provides green space for residents, and more space for pedestrians (this area is widely used by children accessing Hotspur and St Catherine’s schools, as well as local nurseries). There is no change to the bus routes in the area.

During traffic surveys undertaken before the plans were drawn up show 99 out of 621 vehicles used this lane which is clear minority of traffic.[2]

Warwick Street and Heaton Park Road Junction

This is currently a problematic area for people trying to get into and out of Heaton park. It is often difficult to cross, and it is currently impossible to cycle along Heaton Park Road and into the Park.

The proposals don’t solve the problem entirely, as there are several restrictions on what can change due to limited space and because this is a bus route. However, through minor tweaks (such as putting in a dropped kerb at the lights, so that cyclists can access the park from Heaton Park Rd, and a new crossing directly into the park) some useful changes have been suggested. The size of the pavement outside the park – which is currently road – has been increased for example. No cars ever use this area as they are all turning the corner to go up Heaton Park View.

A new diagonal crossing from the park entrance will make getting into and out of the park a lot easier for everyone without having a negative impact elsewhere. As the sequence of the traffic signals will not change, the suggested designs will have very little, if any, negative impact on road users.

Heaton Park Road

Currently, walking down Heaton Park Road involves crossing lots of side streets. The suggested plans for blended footways (where the pavement continues across the side roads) give priority back to people using the street while not blocking any access to people in vehicles.

Some people have concerns that the blended footway will lead to people crossing the side roads becoming less safe. However, where this has been introduced elsewhere it has been shown to change driver behaviour, making drivers more likely to give way to pedestrians.

Preventing cars from parking right up to the junctions (which contravenes the Highway Code[3]) will increase visibility so pedestrians will find it easier to check if it is safe to cross.

The addition of a second zebra crossing will make it easier for people, particularly children, to cross Heaton Park Road on the way to and from the nearby Hotspur Primary School. Over 6400 vehicles travel along Heaton Park Road in a 24 hour period[4] which makes crossing the road difficult and dangerous during the walk to school. An additional formal crossing will make this a lot safer. Along with other changes like removing the centre line from the road (but not changing the available width) this should help reduce traffic speed further increasing safety.

As the highest level of footfall is likely to be at school start and end times there with far less over the rest of the day there is likely to be little negative effect on people driving along the road. Average speeds recorded during surveys showed the average speed of traffic on the road to be under 25mph.[5]

Shaftesbury Grove, Stannington Grove and Tintern Crescent

Heaton Park View is a busy route for people walking towards the city centre from Heaton but the side streets cause several obstacles, particularly for people with pushchairs or in wheelchairs.

The junction of Shaftesbury Grove and Heaton Park View is very wide. This makes it difficult to cross safely as, even if the road is clear when somebody starts to cross, traffic can appear before they have got to the other pavement. Although most of the traffic here travels along Heaton Park Road it’s not always possible to know if a car will be turning in to the junction before starting to cross. Furthermore, there are no dropped curbs to help people with limited mobility and a railing which blocks the pavement at one point.

Introducing a blended footway here would make crossing the road a lot safer while having no negative effect on road traffic.

The end of Stannington Grove suffers from similar, although slightly less severe problems as Shaftesbury Grove. Making similar changes would bring the same benefits as, due to there being no pavement on one side of Heaton Park View beyond this point, the south side of Heaton Park View is likely to get more pedestrian traffic.

The addition of a zebra crossing next to the park entrance will make access to the park safer as well as allowing people to cross easily before the pavement stops on the north side of Heaton Park View. This is an improvement over the current arrangement which uses a traffic island as it allows people to cross the road in one go. With over 90 vehicles every 15 minutes at peak times[6] crossing at the island can be difficult and results in being stranded in the centre of the road. This can be a worry if you have children with you as there isn’t a lot of room on the island.

The end of Tintern Crescent has had some improvement work in the past and the proposed changes would bring this up to modern standards. The addition of trees should improve the appearance of the street and make it less obvious as a through route (which has recently been changed to a No Entry).

Heaton Road

Heaton Road between Meldon Terrace and the Coast Road

The proposed changes to Heaton Road build on the recent changes that have been completed and are working well. Between Meldon Terrace and the Corner House junction there will be various changes to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclist, including the section of road where there was a fatality a few years ago.

The street is a major route for children walking or cycling to Heaton Manor School from Heaton and Byker and for children going to St Teresa’s primary school. Additionally, there are a number of major employment sites to the north of Heaton that are in easy walking and cycling distance if there are safe routes available.

If Heaton Road becomes safer it may have a positive effect on traffic levels as more people choose to walk or cycle, reducing delays for those for need to drive and creating less pollution at the same time.

Improvements for pedestrians include narrowing the entrances to Jesmond Vale Lane and Burlington Gardens to create a shorter crossing distance. Creating a separate cycleway will reduce the likelihood of people cycling on the pavement too.

For people wanting to cycle, the new cycle lanes will provide continuous a safe route on either quiet roads or dedicated lanes all the way from the city centre to the Coast Road, by extending the current Heaton Road scheme and connecting to the route to town and John Dobson Street.

A cross section of the proposed layout for Heaton Road

The cycleway leaves enough space on the road for two cars to simultaneously pass a bus stopped at a bus stop so there should be little impact on car traffic. Where it passes houses without driveways parking has been retained. On Jesmond Vale Terrace the parking will remain outside the houses with the cycle lane created between the pavement and parking spaces. This means residents still have parking without needing to drive across the cycle lane and pedestrians and cyclists are protected from moving vehicles by the parked cars. Additionally, vehicles are moved further away from the pavement lowering the effect of pollution on people using the pavement or living alongside the road.

A parking survey showed there were free spaces available on different sections of Heaton Road throughout the day

Where houses have driveways, gaps will be left in the segregation to allow residents access.

Using light segregation is relatively cheap and easy to construct so disruption should be kept to a minimum during construction

With a car passing along Heaton Road every 7 seconds at the time schools finish[7] it is important to have some form of segregation to protect people wanting to cycle along it. In its current form Heaton Road, with more that 15% of vehicles travelling above the speed limit throughout the day[8], can be an intimidating experience.

Chillingham Road and surrounding streets

Chillingham Road

The shopping area of Chillingham Road has a number of pedestrian crossings allowing people to get from one side to the other safely. North of Cartington Terrace the only crossing facilities before Ravenswood Road consist of small traffic islands. These islands do not provide very much room, particularly for people trying to cross the road with children in pushchairs or on bikes and scooters.

Current crossings are not safe for many people

There is currently no facility to help partially sighted people cross at the current islands and anyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter will have issues with the lack of space if they are unable to cross the road in one go due to the amount of traffic. This is a concern in these locations as there is a doctors’ surgery close by and around 15,000 vehicles per day using Chillingham Road[ix].

The proposals would see the current traffic islands removed and replaced by Puffin crossings. A Puffin crossing has sensors that can be set up to detect if a person is still crossing the road and keep traffic stationary until they are safely across. Additionally, the crossing can be set up to detect if people are waiting to cross or have left, meaning that people driving cars are not help up unnecessarily.

At the junction of Sackville Road and Alexandra Road there will be changes made to create more car parking spaces. Some of the double yellow lines on the south side of Alexandra Road will be removed and replaced with formal car parking bays. These spaces will be new as the introduction of the crossings doesn’t remove any other parking spaces.

The crossing and bus stop which will move to create more space for people going to school nearby

It is also proposed to move the crossing that is near the junction of Ravenswood Road and Chillingham Road north slightly so that it is aligned with Westwood Avenue and change it to a Toucan Crossing. The current extended pavement on the east side of Chillingham Road will be extended to this point.

Currently there is very little room on the west side of Chillingham Road for people waiting to cross and, at busy times, for those crossing to get off the road. This is a problem for people going to and from the nearby school with children who want to scoot or cycle. By moving the crossing to align with Westwood Avenue there will be more space on both sides of the road making the crossing a lot safer. Converting the crossing to a Toucan crossing will formalise provision for people crossing between the quitter roads by bike.

The bus stop that is currently at the end of Westwood Avenue will be moved a few metres north so it will be after the crossing. The traffic island near Farnley Road will be removed to accommodate this. As the crossing will move the island will be not be as useful as it is now.

Farnley Road

It is proposed to create a blended footway over Farnley Road. This is very close to a primary school so it is important that people with children traveling to the school by foot, scooter or bike have proper priority.

Creating a blended footway here will also clearly signal to people driving that there will be pedestrians about.

Additionally, the traffic island in the centre of Chillingham Road next to this junction will be removed as it will be replaced by the crossing near Ravenswood Road which is being moved northwards.

Ravenswood Road

There are a number of proposed changes to Ravenswood Road designed to improve access the school for people traveling with children who are walking, scooting or cycling.

Blended footways across the end of Ravenswood Road where it meets Chillingham Road and across the alleyways behind Chillingham Road where they meet Ravenswood Road will give more priority to people walking and provide a clear visual signal to people driving to slow down.

The footway alongside the school, up to Stanmore Road, will be widened to provide more open space for children using the school. Most of the north side of the road is currently restricted parking due to the school so the extra space the pavement will take up will be on redundant road space. The current raised table outside the school gates will be improved to fit with the new pavement alignment and coloured to highlight the crossing. Railings and street clutter will be replaced with planters at critical points to improve the look of the street while keeping it safe.

Ravenswood Road will be made one way, westbound from its junction with Stanmore Road to the junction with the alleyways behind Chillingham Road. This should help make the street safer, particularly at school start and finish times. The knock-on effect on surrounding streets will need to be monitored but shouldn’t be too great. It is likely that any additional eastbound traffic will be offset by cars not making a circular return to Chillingham Road having driven eastbound along Ravenswood Road after visiting the school.

Debdon Gardens

It is proposed to tighten up the corners of the junction of Debdon Gardens and Addycombe Terrace. Currently the junction is very wide which leads to people driving into and out of Debdon Gardens quite quickly which makes crossing both Debdon Gardens and Addycombe Terrace difficult, particularly with small children. The proposed changes will make crossing both streets easier for people walking.

Alexandra Road

It is proposed to put a modal filter on Alexandra Road, just west of the junction with King Edward Road, to reduce the number of people using the street as a short cut to avoid the Coast Road.

There are 145 house that require Alexandra Road for access yet the street sees almost 1000 vehicles use it each week day, 15% or more travelling above the speed limit.[x] There is also a large disparity between the direction of traffic with high westbound volumes in the morning going towards town not matched by return evening traffic. Speeds were also higher for westbound traffic. This suggests most vehicles using the street are not driven by residents.

The change will make the street quieter and safer for the people living on it as well as reducing their exposure to vehicle related pollution without stopping access to any point. It would have limited negative effect on Chillingham and Heaton Roads as any traffic that currently travels along the length of the street currently uses both those roads anyway.

Additionally, the change will be a step towards preventing the use of Heaton’s residential streets as an alternative cut through for traffic trying to avoid the Coast Road.

Cartington Terrace

It is proposed to put a modal filter on Cartington Terrace just west of the junction with Lesbury Road. This is to reduce the number of people using the street as a short cut to avoid the Coast Road. Additionally, this will allow the traffic signals at the junction of Heaton Road and Cartington Terrace to be removed which will allow freer flowing traffic on Heaton Road.

There are 119 houses that require Cartington Terrace for access (20 of them on the street itself) yet more than 1400 vehicles travel along the street each week day[xi]. The highest amount of traffic is travelling westbound during the morning peak period. Each day there are over 270 more vehicles going westbound than eastbound.

The change will make the street quieter and safer for the people living on it as well as reducing their exposure to vehicle related pollution. It would have limited negative effect on Chillingham and Heaton Roads as any traffic that currently runs along the street currently uses both those streets anyway and any point that is accessible by car currently (such as the sports ground) will still be accessible after the change.

Additionally, the change will be a step towards preventing the use of Heaton’s residential streets as an alternative cut through for traffic trying to avoid the Coast Road.

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About the project

The Streets for People project is a collaboration between Newcastle City Council and residents in three areas of Newcastle upon Tyne. The project is funded by a grant obtained from the Department for Transport’s Cycle City Ambition Fund.